Antonovich, Ward Take Shots at Each Other’s Track Record

In their first joint campaign appearance since the primary, Supervisor Mike Antonovich and his challenger, Baxter Ward, wasted no time Thursday providing voters with a taste of what the final weeks of the hotly contested race could be like: down and dirty.

Before a Chamber of Commerce audience in La Canada, both candidates used the other’s political track record for target practice.

Attack on Traffic

Ward, a former supervisor and long-time television newscaster, accused Antonovich of doing nothing to alleviate traffic congestion while dismantling a heavy-rail commuter line that Ward had pioneered in office.

Antonovich counterattacked by suggesting that Ward, a two-term incumbent during the 1970s, ignored his constituents and wasted millions of dollars investigating alleged county corruption.

Later, Antonovich charged Ward with “character assassination” and said, “If he wants to swim in a cesspool, that’s his idea not mine.”

Ward shot back: “I don’t campaign dirty. I simply recite what the record shows.”

The race is a repeat of 1980 when Antonovich, a former Republican assemblyman from Glendale, defeated Ward. The campaign was characterized by vicious personal attacks by both men that shocked even veteran political observers.

Slow-Growth Concerns

In June, Antonovich was forced into a November runoff by failing to turn back an organized attack by slow-growth activists who encouraged nine challengers to run against him. Ward placed second and has since received the endorsement of the other eight.

The pair’s battlefield is the 5th Supervisorial District, a 2,615-square-mile area that is larger than the state of Delaware. It stretches from Westlake Village on the west across the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys past Pasadena to the desert communities in the Antelope Valley.

After Antonovich outlined his accomplishments, Ward took the microphone and said: “I have a message for Mr. Antonovich from the 5th District. Mike, your traffic congestion is killing us! Now that comes from all the people in the San Fernando Valley, almost all the people in the Santa Clarita Valley and a great many people in the Antelope Valley.”

Ward blamed the congestion on the Board of Supervisor’s pro-development policies and promised to slow the parade of new suburban tract homes.

Forked Tongue

But Antonovich countered that Ward was speaking with a “forked tongue.” As supervisor, Ward favored a county plan that was later called “blueprint for urban sprawl” in court, Antonovich said.

The afternoon’s heartiest applause went to Antonovich when he waved a plastic bag containing drug needles. He accused Ward of “utter nonsense” for advocating that drug addicts receive free needles.

After the debate, Ward said he backed a proposal endorsed by the county’s Department of Health Services and its Commission on AIDS that maintains that the spread of AIDS could be reduced among addicts by dispensing condoms and bleach kits to clean dirty needles. The Board of Supervisors rejected the idea at its meeting last week. Antonovich voted against the plan.